(February 2023) Episode 475 is JAPANDROIDS, an indie guitar/drum duo from Vancouver. My feeling about them is this: the teens who thought they were punk because they listened to Blink 182 grew up to be the Millennials who assumed they were still edgy/cool by liking Japandroids a decade later. I wanted to like this band, and I appreciate the energy, but it comes off as annoying hipster-fuel. So, Millennial.
Episode 474 is LA COLONIE DE VACANCES, a collective of four French bands PNEU, MARVIN, ELECTRIC ELECTRIC and PAPIER TIGRE. I didn’t know what to label this music until I came upon the term “math rock,” essentially the intersection of prog rock and indie rock, featuring irregular rhythms, guitars that eschew chords, hyperactive drumming and avoidance of melody. King Crimson would be the godfather of math rock. Among the groups, Pneu is a raw power trio, Papier Tigre features vocals, Electric Electric is techno-focused and Marvin is aggressive and techno-rhythmic. When they get together live as La Colonie de Vacancies the four bands arrange themselves in a quad and play at each other in controlled chaos. Sounds cool.
(January 2023) Episode 468 is REGINA SPEKTOR. I can overcome my aversion to “singer-songwriters” with Regina Spektor. She uses her versatile voice like an instrument, confident yet delicate, neither emo nor operatic. Her lyrics and wordplay are interesting, and melodies inventive. I prefer her earlier, sparer recordings — mostly just her voice and peppy piano — over her later lush and orchestrated albums, although two of my favorite songs are on her latest release (“Up the Mountain” and “SugarMan”).
(December 2022) Episode 461 is THE SHINS. They are a textbook representation of the duality of 2000s indie rock: songs melodic enough to be enjoyable, yet delivered in a twee manner that makes them not so enjoyable. By the 2010s, their music becomes burdened by the application of lush over-production typical of the era.
(November 2022) Episode 450 is SPACEMEN 3. They’re labeled neo-psychedelic (perhaps for their ample drug use) but I hear them as noise rock — a transformative band, molding elements of MC5, the Stooges and Lou Reed and creating sounds you hear later in shoegazers (My Bloody Valentine) and sonic adventurers (Yo La Tengo). Few if anyone else was doing this in the 1980s, and I regret not knowing them then. But beyond the noise, Spacemen 3 offered surprisingly infectious low-structure songs, the kind of stuff you’ll hear with Spiritualized (not surprising, since Jason Pierce led both), Brian Jonestown Massacre and Beta Band.
(October 2022) Episode 445 is STURGILL SIMPSON. I’ll never be a country music fan but I’m trying to expand my knowledge. In conventional mode, Simpson evokes outlaw country and Merle & Waylon (much better than hot country which I loathe), and nails bluegrass and ballads too. But he also goes iconoclast on a couple albums with electronic sounds and distorted guitars for an alt rock sound.
Favorite album: Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
(October 2022) Episode 443 is THE VINES. I see them as the garage band version of the classic rock-stomping Jet, both emerging out of Australia 2002. The garage hooks were good but too few. They developed a lush, overproduced sound that presaged that of fellow Aussies Pond and Tame Impala.
Episode 430 is ADAM AND THE ANTS (+ Adam Ant solo). “Kings of the Wild Frontier” was the one non-classic rock album in my high school collection, and I played it repeatedly to show how “alternative” I was. How lame. But revisiting it four decades later, it still kinda slaps — idiosyncratic new wave with Burundi drums, glam tones and a pirate ethos, and bouncy fun. The first solo album is OK but you can skip the rest.
(May 2022) Episode 405 is the HAPPY MONDAYS. Arguably the most Madchester sound within the Madchester scene, with plenty of grooves and rave beats. But they lacked the melodic charm of peers the Stone Roses and Charlatans.
(March 2022) Episode 393 is THE BETA BAND. Like me, you may know them from that iconic head-bobbing scene in the movie High Fidelity. It’s hard to describe their esoteric mix of folk, electronica, loops, beats and experimental sounds, but it is generally enjoyable. I don’t know if it was intentional, but the “beta” in the name implies it’s not a finished project, and it sounds like it.
Opus Project 